Let us hope that the EU will finally ban the Cabotage done by Fedex and UPS very soon, as there are several courtcases and investigations running against it. ( and yes, it IS cabotage as they operate within one economic union, which is the basis of cabotage, and not political union)
I cannot find ANY definition of cabotage that supports your contention. In fact, I found more than one discussion/definition which addresses the EU, and they all address operations within a single member state:
http://www.aerolegalservices.com/Art...ircraft.shtml:
European Union. Cabotage regulations in the European Union are more complex than in Canada. The difficulty results from the European Union’s definition of commercial transportation. In the U.S., the U.S. Customs service defines commercial transportation as transportation “for compensation or hire”. However, the European Union defines “commercial use” as “the use of means of transportation for the transport of persons or of goods for remuneration or in the framework of the economic activity of an enterprise”.
Unfortunately, the European Union definition means that a U.S. registered corporate aircraft operating within the European Union for corporate or other business purposes can be considered to be engaging in commercial use or transportation. As a result, if a corporate aircraft flies into a European Union country, picks up a citizen of that country and then travels on to another destination within that country, it is likely that the second flight would be in violation of the European Union cabotage regulations.
http://www.law-pedia.com/cabotage.htm:
Definition of cabotage
n. Transport services provided in one member state of the EU by a carrier of another state. Article 71 (formerly 75) of the Treaty of Rome provides that the Council of the European Union may lay down proposals in relation to the conditions under which nonresident carriers may operate transport services within a member state.
C 21/2 Official Journal of the European Union (road haulage, but identical concept):
Based on Article 71(1)(b) of the EC Treaty, the Community Regulations (2) give the following definition:
Any non-resident carrier who is a holder of the Community authorisation is entitled to operate, on a temporary basis and without quantitative restrictions, national road haulage services in another Member State, without having a registered office or other establishment in that State.
Also, if it is of such concern to the EU, why hasn't a EU company simply opened up shop and offered the services? Surely all those EU airlines and companies would jump over to another EU company...
